Panama has complained to the United Nations over US President Donald Trump's "worrying" threat to seize the Panama Canal, even as it launched an audit of the Hong Kong-linked operator of two ports on the interoceanic waterway.

The United States will not allow the Panama Canal to be controlled by China. Such a statement, speaking to the faction of the ruling Republican Party of the House of Representatives of the US Congress,

Panama rejects President Donald Trump's pledge that the United States would be 'taking back' the Panama Canal, saying the key interoceanic waterway would remain under its control.